Governor Ibrahim Gaidam of Yobe, on Thursday, disclosed that a whopping sum of N91, 647, 597, 000 has been projected to be spent by his administration in 2019 in order to spur the state to greater socio-economic progress.
A statement by the Director-General, Media Affairs of the State’s Government House, Abdullahi Bego, said that the governor intended to consolidate on the gains recorded so far by completing all the major legacy projects in the state.
“In this budget, we intend to consolidate on the gains recorded so far by completing all the major legacy projects being executed by our administration before handing over to the incoming APC administration in the state.
“We intend to hand over to the incoming administration a government that is free from any loan, that is without any uncompleted capital project, and that has a robust civil service to plan and implement any project”, the governor said.
The governor spoke moments ago at the State House of Assembly where he made a valedictory budget address to the lawmakers and presented the 2019 Finance and Appropriations Bills, tagged: “Budget of Consolidation”.
According to the statement, Mr Gaidam projected 54.5 per cent of the budget (N49, 968, 967, 000) for recurrent expenditure while the remaining 45.5 per cent (N41, 678, 630, 600) would be devoted to capital spending.
Mr Bego, who noted that this year’s budget is slightly below that of 2018 with 0.6 per cent, stated that this year, the economic sector has been allocated N30, 635, 430, 000 and governance sector was allocated N17, 473, 893, 500.
He added that the regional sector (covering water supply, environment and housing) got N4, 431, 968, 000, law and justice was given N2, 298, 887, 000 and the social sector will devour N36, 807, 418, 500.
The governor revealed that education has been allocated the sum of N22, 497, 645, 000 under the social sector.
“We will continue to take steps to revitalise education for the progress of our state depends on it”, he said.
Education is followed by works, transport and energy at N15, 951, 223, 000 and healthcare, which has a total of N13, 002, 338, 000 budgetary allocation.
While reviewing the performance of the 2018 budget, the governor said that of the 92, 182, 336, 000 projected within the fiscal year, actual receipts as at November 23 stood at N75, 967, 788, 000 which represents 82.4 per cent of the projected earnings.
He noted that there was 82.4 per cent implementation rate for recurrent expenditure and 40 per cent implementation for capital projects.
“The overall budget performance from January 2018 to Nov. 2018 was 61.1 per cent. The percentage will increase before the year ends”, he said.
“Given the progress that Yobe has made so far, we cannot dare to look backwards,” Mr Gaidam said.
“We are optimistic that the policies and programmes being implemented and the legacy projects which our administration has executed will continue to be strengthened in our state post-May 2019”, the governor added.
